Article by
Marlon Madden

Published on
February 25, 2019

Public sector members of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) have been left with a bitter taste in their mouths from Government’s Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme.

In fact, BWU General Secretary Senator Toni Moore said today that there is a general feeling that they had to bear a disproportionate cost of the adjustment and that the union had not done enough to cushion the blow.

Under the BERT programme, the Mia Mottley-led administration has implemented a range of new taxes and embarked on a retrenchment exercise that has so far seen more than 1,200 public sector workers going home.

Addressing the opening of the 16th Annual Week of Excellence at the Grande Salle, Central Bank, Moore did not state the extent of the dissatisfaction, but said while she agreed there needed to be economic improvement it should not happen at the expense of “the social sector”.

The theme for the Week of Excellence is Driving Change Towards the New Economy.

“Economic success cannot be achieved without social success. Therefore, people must be the beneficiaries of the changes we pursue. People must be the beneficiaries of the changes in the new economy. The new economy must provide a vision of an optimistic future for our people. The social sector, therefore, must not bear disproportionately the cost of adjustments to achieve economic growth,” warned Moore.

“This is a stated underpinning of the BERT programme, but in the roll out up to now, and on the heels of public sector retrenchment, although we have reached targets and although I embrace many of the principles of the BERT programme as being fundamental to engendering greater discipline and so on, many are left with the feeling that they have had to bear disproportionately, the cost of adjustments. What is worse is that the trade union is being blamed for not doing enough to stop it.”

Senator Moore said the BWU has been grappling with questions such as how to build confidence among members, how to become a driver of change in the new economy, and how to assure people that in a rapidly changing work environment it was possible to achieve growth that benefits them.

She also said the new economy called for “heavy investment” in people and the creation of jobs and opportunities.

“It calls for strong social protection systems. It calls for the observance of social dialogue and the fundamental principles – rights at work,” added Moore.

Governor of the Central Bank Cleviston Haynes, also speaking at the opening, said the new economy required timely and accurate data to help authorities better innovate and inform real-time decision-making.

Haynes said since the implementation of the BERT programme, there have been some encouraging signs in the economy.

“Our public finances have been reordered to the extent that we are now on target to achieve a primary surplus of 3.3 per cent of GDP [gross domestic product] for fiscal year 2018/2019,” said Haynes.

While adding that the confidence necessary for investment and growth was returning, he warned that now was not the time to “relax”.

In fact, the Central Bank Governor said further changes towards building a new economy would require sacrifices on the part of both the public and private sectors.

“So, whether you are in the public sector or private sector you will be called upon to do more with less because of the economic constraints. Public sector leaders who now have smaller budgets need, therefore, to be more nimble and flexible and improve efficiency in their operations,” he said, adding that new approaches to traditional ways of doing things were also needed.

Haynes added that he was confident that when the reforms were fully implemented, they would support the change towards a new economy, which he said should be knowledge-based and services and technology-driven, while promoting innovation and creativity.

“The BERT programme symbolizes one aspect of this change as we seek to restore economic and fiscal discipline. However, there is also a need for change in attitude, change in behaviour, a change in mindset and a change in culture,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Barbados Private Sector Association (BPSA) Ed Clarke said he was heartened by the planned transformation for the Barbados economy.

Likening the economic health of the country to that of a badly injured patient, he said: “We have just left the hospital’s emergency room and we are now in the recovery room, which is part one.”

Clarke acknowledged that any changes towards a new economy would have significant implications for both employers and employees, he said organisations should expect new terms of employment, change to work hours, new age of retirement and new age for an individual to start working.

He said that in order for Barbados to adequately compete, it would need to improve on its use of technology, transform its power source to 100 per cent renewable energy, transform the education system and strengthen partnerships between the public and private sectors.marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb

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4 thoughts on “Hard done”

Greengiant

None of them mentioned anything about growth, all about change yes, workers losing confidence in the Unions obviously as expected with their approach, and the surplus due to borrowed finance. So yes most vocal King Edward the country has left critical care and is in the recovery unit while the people have left critical care and are in the medical departure lounge. They’re waiting to ‘depart in peace’ while the cabinet members, their friends, associates, party members, and consultants will leave recovery and go to the comfort of their homes as they are discharged from austerity.

Again none of you brought any growth strategy, because obviously there’s none.

The workers’lost of confidence has to do with the BWU getting into the same bed as the enemy. They are bed fellows of the BLP and the private sector. The GS said that the 1000 selected to go home was a reasonable number and their aparent disinterest and blatant lack of representation was the nail in the coffin. The BLP tricked them. By the time more layoffs take place they will no longer have the influence in industrial relations as they had before.

Any bed with the BEES in it,is full of bed bugs.
The BWU and the NUPW leadership has totally sold out its members.
Members can only blame themselves. They pay the dues for the credit cards, and the big cars for the big shots.

The language of this General Secretary of The BWU is confusion. May i bring back to memory for all Barbados her words when this government said it was going to lay off public workers. Ms Moore words were “she had no problems with the government (BLP) sending home government workers, because many of the workers going home had gotten jobs in government(DLP) in areas where no vacancies existed”. Ms Moore needs to apologize to the Public Servants in Barbados who continue to pay union dues, for this, her bias political ranting. She should also know that this (BLP) government has engaged in hiring people in government where no vacancies exist.

Intellectual prostitution is at work here. We say words according to the situation and who is in charge of it and for a particular gain. IS BWU and NUPW guilty of such. You answer in your own mind and time.

Change is always painfull . And Barbados has resisted change for the longest time and has managed to get away with it. Hence the saying (That is the way we do it here in Barbados). We cannot afford a 24 hour society and expect that 8hours of work can pay for it. Printing money in place of increased economic activity and productivity as was done by the previous DLP Government clearly does not work and has led us to this point. Who today in the Public Sector, Private Sector and Social Partnership has the Answer to repaying 17 billion in National Debt with no corresponding Assets to offset it.

You are just trying to keep the remainder of those still foolish enough to be members fooled. The PM came on national media and said big and bold, retrenchment would be a last resort. What was the first thing she did? And you were made a Senator. Now you talking. Wunna really tink all Bajans stupid.

The last administration was so ‘wicked’ that they incurred debt so that public servants could maintain their jobs. All the while the unions were encouraging their members to have the administration removed. I always felt that while we as a country where incurring debt to maintain jobs the unions should have been working with their members to help them transition to become drivers of change in the new economy.

She is a shill period, the only concerns these unions will have is the loss of dues, which I hope is significant. She cannot even master the art of bloviation, I have said it before and in numerous comments, I made in these forums these unions are neutered and they are therefore impotent at a time when workers are being given their marching orders, then again they loved the idea of marching, it’s so sad.